Many faces were beaming with the sun this afternoon in San Remo - and it was already shining beautifully, as befits spring on the Italian Riviera. Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Jasper Philipsen were all smiling, all three for very different reasons. Philipsen was of course happy to have won the race. "It's a dream come true to be the winner of a monument, and the one that suits me best," he said jubilantly. In third place, Pogačar hugged Philipsen and second-placed Michael Matthews with exuberance. "It's a great podium. And the great thing is that Michael and Jasper are good friends," said the Slovenian.
He has already spent a holiday with Philipsen. He chauffeured Matthews to his team hotel in his car before the race. "But I don't want him that close to me on the Via Roma," he joked. However, that failed. Pogačar didn't take offence; in fact, he took a selfie with the two of them at the podium ceremony. The Slovenian, who is used to winning, has rarely been as happy about a third place as he was in San Remo.
Milan-San Remo: Van der Poel "only" victorious helper
World champion and last year's winner van der Poel crossed the finish line on the Via Roma in tenth place. For people who only look at numbers and data, this is a moderate disaster. Not so for the Dutchman. "Of course I would have liked to have won myself. But I can also enjoy it like this. It's great for the team to be the winner twice in a row. And Jasper and I have helped each other a lot in the past," he explained at the finish, smiling and at least appearing quite relaxed.
Van der Poel knew that his part in his team-mate's success could not be overestimated. The man with start number 1 had done everything in the final to ensure that Philipsen, and not he himself, would win. On the descent from the Poggio, he did not make common cause with Tadej Pogačar, who had lost the race. "Jasper had told me that he had fantastic legs today. Of course, I would have loved to finish together with Tadej. But when I realised that Jasper was still within reach after the Poggio, I realised that the final would be different," said van der Poel later. So he refrained from working on the pace in the duo with Pogačar and did not launch any attacks of his own later on.
New team tactics during the race
He mobilised all his energy to neutralise attacks from the competition: the surprising move by Bora-Hansgrohe's newcomer Matteo Sobrero on the last kilometre, for example, and the half-dauntless, half-desperate pursuit by Tom Pidcock. And even in the clever attempt by aerodynamics experimenter Matej Mohorič, who won the Classicissima downhill two years ago, the man in the rainbow jersey was the defensive specialist who helped close the gap.
"I probably wouldn't have won the race without Mathieu," said Philipsen honestly. He gave his team-mate credit for putting his own ambitions on the back burner. "We went into the race with the clear message that Mathieu is number one. He is the world champion, he won San Remo last year. I had a rather free role, was supposed to save energy and get over the climbs as well as possible. That worked out quite well. The team was also there at the key points. But without Mathieu's work in the finale, there probably wouldn't have been a sprint by a small group," said Philipsen when asked about the original distribution of roles in the team.
Milan-San Remo: Praise from the All-Star
The unselfish help from last year's winner for his colleague, who may be leaving the team at the end of his contract next winter, drew a lot of applause from the scene. Former star Eddy Merckx was also very impressed. "The coordination between van der Poel and Philipsen was perfect. Both are very loyal, and this time Mathieu sacrificed himself," he praised. Of course, one can speculate about the size of the sacrifice. It's quite possible that van der Poel didn't want to get into a duel with Pogačar in his very first race of the season. After all, he had already proven his top form in his impressive solo victory at Strade Bianche at the beginning of March.
And the Slovenian also tore a gap twice on the Poggio on Saturday afternoon. "I expected the first attack. The second came as a bit of a surprise," said van der Poel later. He hadn't seen himself in top form either. "I didn't expect to be in as good shape as last year," he admitted. He felt good, but not quite excellent enough to put all his eggs in one basket - his. And his big goals are still to come, with the Tour of Flanders, which he would like to win for a third time, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Classics monument that is still missing from his collection of victories.
Different roles for the next race?
At most of the Belgian classics, he can now particularly hope that Philipsen will return the favour as a helper. "We often ride together. We're used to being honest with each other," said van der Poel, describing the special bond that connects the classics king of recent years with the Tour's sprint king. The world champion also hopes to be able to perform together as a duo with Philipsen for even longer. "I hope that he will ride with us for many years to come," he said immediately after crossing the finish line.
Philipsen also emphasised that he would like to continue chasing victories in this combination. But big money could stand in the way. The Belgian has signed cycling manager Alex Carera as his new agent, whose clients include Pogačar. This is a strong indication that he is going "all in" on the poker for a contract extension for a salary in the millions, which could be beyond the means of the Alpecin-Deceuninck racing team. Team UAE with captain Pogačar is a very hot candidate for a transfer. Philipsen already started his professional career there, together with Pogačar by the way.
And, as the Slovenian made unmistakably clear, the two are great mates. Pogačar himself had little reason to be happy after the race in the spring. After all, his team's tactical plans were only half-fulfilled at best. "Pogi" had announced that he wanted to make the race difficult early on. Team director Matxin Fernandez even promised a new record time of under nine minutes for the climb up the Cipressa.
Milan-San Remo: UAE starts too fast
And indeed, the men in the white UAE jerseys stretched out in front of the field from Capo Berta onwards. It stretched out, gaps opened up. The selection became even bigger on the Cipressa. About two kilometres before the crest, however, UAE ran out of fuel. The neo-pro Isaac del Toro, who had been extremely strong until then, dropped out exhausted and suddenly Pogačar only had one helper, the Belgian Tim Wellens. Both hesitated and slowed down. Other riders caught up; all the nice preparatory work for nothing.
The competitors shook their heads. "They wasted a lot of energy and ran themselves dry. They attacked where we expected them to," said Philipsen in amazement. However, he also conceded that there had been few opportunities to make the race favourable for a rider like Pogačar. "We did what we could and what was in our power. Unfortunately, if you want to make a difference, it always happens that you end up missing two legs," said Andrej Hauptman, sporting director at UAE, with a touch of sarcasm.
In the analysis, it was above all the legs of the Swiss rider Marc Hirschi that were missing. Del Toro therefore had to take over the pace work earlier than planned. And the record time on the Cipressa came to nothing. Pogačar had already lost Milan-San Remo there, even though he managed to mount two attacks on the Poggio afterwards. But the group was too big and the competition too strong for him to reach the finish as a soloist.
Record ride at Milan-San Remo 2024
Milan-San Remo 2024 was nevertheless a record-breaking ride despite missing the new Cipressa best time. Thanks to UAE's accelerations from Capo Berta onwards, at least the highest average speed in the history of the race was achieved (46.11 km/h). The previous record holder was Gianni Bugno in 1990 (45.806 km/h). "I didn't think my record would last this long. But the actions of UAE made the race so fast," said the former professional. Nevertheless, Bugno remains the record holder for the route from Milan to San Remo. After all, this year's Classicissima only began in Pavia.
"There have been problems with Milan from time to time in recent years. That's why we started in Abbiategrasso last year. But the reception now in Pavia was very good. And I can imagine that it will also be Pavia-San Remo in the coming years," said race director Mauro Vegni. After all, the Poggio is not up for discussion. "The climb just before the finish is simply classic. It offers the only point of attack for those who can't try their luck in a bunch sprint," said Vegni.
Next year, Pogačar will also have to try to decide the race well ahead of Via Roma. At least that's what compatriot and sporting director Hauptman assumed. But perhaps UAE will already have Jasper Philipsen in play as a second card. And van der Poel will then have to ride on his own account again. In this case, preferably with one or two more races in his legs.
Results of the 115th edition of Milan-San Remo
- Jasper Philipsen (BEL, Alpecin-Deceuninck), 288 km in 6:14:44 hours (46.11 km/h)
- Michael Matthews (NZL, Team Jayco AlUla)
- Tadej Pogačar (SLO, UAE Team Emirates)
- Mads Pedersen (DEN, Lidl-Trek)
- Alberto Bettiol (ITA, EF Education-Easy Post)
- Matej Mohorič (SLO, Bahrain Victorious)
- Maxim Van Gils (BEL, Lotto Dstny)
- Jasper Stuyven (BEL, Lidl-Trek)
- Julian Alaphilippe (FRA, Soudal Quick-Step)
- Mathieu van der Poel (NED, Alpecin-Deceuninck), all same time
